ASK AN EXPERT

The caller
was offering an enhanced telephone preference scheme at a low cost
reduced from £4 to £1.90 per period, which would block overseas cold
calls as well.

‘As
I know TPS is a government initiative, which doesn’t charge, I
suspected this was a scam cold call and got off the line as soon as
possible,’ reader SP said.

‘This is rather irksome as I am already registered as a preferred number,’ he added.

Calls of this type are a growing problem, the TPS told This is Money.

‘The growth in bogus TPS calls matches the growth of complaints about nuisance calls,’ said John Mitchison, head of the Telephone Preference Service.

HOW TO REDUCE NUISANCE CALLS AND TEXTS

Register
with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). If you are registered with
the TPS and still receive calls, you can complain to the Information
Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on 0300 123 3000. If you are with Orange,
O2, T-Mobile or Vodafone you can forward spam texts to 7726. If you’re a
Three user, text 37726.

Set
up call barring – many cold calls come from abroad, so you could ask
your phone operator to block calls from international numbers.

Don’t
respond to spam texts. Even texting the word 'stop' alerts the sender
that the phone is active and in use. If you do receive spam texts, you
can report them to your network provider or to the ICO.

Note
the number – if possible get the cold call phone number (for example
through dialing 1471). This helps organisations such as Ofcom to
investigate.

Screen calls
– if you have caller display and an answer phone, consider only
answering calls from numbers you recognise. Don’t answer unsolicited
emails or return unrecognised calls as again you will be letting the
company know your details are 'live'.

‘As PPI
calls have become increasingly prevalent, complaints about nuisance
calls have gone through the roof. At the same time there has been a
growth in fake TPS callers trying to take advantage of people’s
frustration with cold callers.

‘The problem is they cold call people to offer help fighting cold callers. The irony appears to be lost on them.’

Mr Mitchison explained there are three main types of call to look out for.

One is from companies offering similar services to the TPS, often claiming that they offer even more than the TPS.

‘I can’t see any merit whatsoever in these,’ he said.

Another
type of call is from companies selling call blocking devices. Some of
these can be useful, but most tend to be very basic, Mr Mitchison
said. They are also a nuisance in themselves when they are directed
towards people who are on the TPS register.

‘Then
at the far end of the spectrum there are some outright scammers, who
are not selling anything, they claim to be from BT or the TPS and say
something like ‘we can see you are registered with the TPS but
unfortunately this service is no longer free’. They then ask for your
credit card details.

‘Many of these companies like to put ‘TPS’ in their name to make them sound official, he added.

The
TPS will never call you out of the blue: the only reason it would phone
is to return a phone call. So if you do receive a call claiming to be
from the TPS, you can assume it’s false.